Amy Zerner's Fashion Sense: Art, Food and Fashion

My dear friend George Hirsch has a great TV series on PBS called George Hirsch Lifestyle. He visited me in my studio where we shared how art and food go hand-in-hand. The episode “Food is Art” airs Sunday July 6 at 2:30 p.m. on WLIW21. I showed George my fashion designs, artwork and made him my kale salad. Hope you will watch! (See preview below)

Here’s the recipe:

Amy’s Kale Kollage Salad (a 2-day operation, but very easy!)

Day 1: Clean and wash and dry a bunch of baby kale. Organic is best, if possible. Citarella sells kale already chopped. Make sure it is in bite-size pieces—take out any big stem parts, if not using baby kale. Make a dressing of one big organic lemon and organic olive oil and Himalayan salt to taste, enough to thoroughly dress the raw kale. Toss it with your hands to make sure all pieces are covered, work it a bit into the leaves. Put in a covered container overnight. The dressing breaks it down to make a nice, chewy texture.

I used Trader Joe’s tri-colore quinoa blend. It has a great taste. 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer until all the water is absorbed. Once it’s cooked, add Trader Joe’s orange-flavored cranberries (great taste!), about 1/3 cup. I love these in salads. Add to the hot quinoa and then stir in and cover again. This plumps the cranberries. Allow to cool.

Toast a handful of pine nuts. Allow to cool.

Make more lemon-olive oil-salt dressing—about 1/3 cup. Toss the dressing, a little at a time, into the quinoa mixture, along with the pine nuts. Don’t overdress it.

Day 2: Mix the kale into the quinoa. Add a handful of chopped organic parsley. Can be served cold or room temperature.

Check out Amy’s designs in her new Enchanted World Emporium in East Hampton, 8 Main Street, 631-324-7695.

Amy Zerner is the Hamptons’ number one fashion blogger and designer.